Blogs LHC

Blog - Prime Content

The Future of Music Online 2018

Future of MusicFuture of Music 2018Music 2018Music TrendsNew Artists for 2018New Music 2018+-

As I said for the 2017 round-up, I did not find last year to be particularly vintage - there was no one album or song that totally blew me away, although there was still much to be admired. As posted recently - I came across heavy metal band ’In This Moment’ over Christmas and their music dominated the tail-end of the year for me and continues to reign now - considering how little metal I listen to that is surely significant in some way.

There were some obvious trends that hit last year, and that will continue to resonate through 2018 (Grime, Latin, Dancehall), but there was much I did not get either / did not resonate for me. I still haven’t latched on to the supposed brilliance of Drake yet, and 2017 hip-hop breakout artist Cardi B did little for me either. I guess Björk kind of sums up the year - where I initially loved promo single ’Blissing Me’ but in the end it does not really go anywhere - just lovely twinkly noodly harp which eventually starts to get rather grating - which kinds of sums up my opinion of the corresponding Utopia album - it was sort of like a vague shadow of Vespertine - but without the memorable melodies or coherence of that album - it all kind of blurs together for me unlike its predecessor Vulnicura which I really rather liked.

I went into the year expecting big things from Skott, but I guess her album will launch this year instead. She did not manage to eclipse her earlier highs, and her musical output dried up somewhat through the year. This time around I have high hopes for another Scandinavian - from neighbouring Norway - one Sigrid Solbakk Raabe, who was an incredibly bright spark in 2017 and scored 3 hits with ’Don’t Kill My Vibe’, ’Plot Twist’ and ’Strangers’ - she’s my top pick for 2018 - her live performance at Glastonbury was superb too - totally effervescent.

Many readers will know that I’ve become somewhat entrenched in all things guitar at the moment and yet proper rock music still seems to be somewhat in decline - despite all the amazing new technology out there - which makes it easier to make any sound you desire, record and produce at high quality - from the comfort of your home. I still expect to see more Ed Sheeran - all-in-one types materialising - possibly with a more technical angle to their sound. 2017 also brought me the reincarnation of Jimi Hendrix in the guise of Lewis Floyd Henry - who does a fine line in rock ’n’ hip-hop mashups - and is indeed a one man rock-machine - guitar, drums and all!

Some of the things I predicted last year failed to materialise - I am still awaiting that breakthrough home-studio-production technology with built-in AI which allows you to easily combine and improvise with existing stem materials. That said there are numerous innovations at CES and NAMM this year for home-recording and studio / production - just not quite at the level I foresaw yet.

Looking at the forthcoming album releases for the year - I’m still waiting for new Glass Candy material, but loook forward to debut albums from Sigrid, Skott, Billie Eilish, Echosmith, and follow-ups from Grimes, Róisín Murphy, Poliça, Rhye and U.S. Girls. We may even get more from Beyoncé and Kanye. On paper 2018 does not look particularly vintage either, but here’e hoping it will be a pleasant surprise...

10 Favourite Albums of 2017

OK year for albums - far from exceptional, but several long-players saw significant repeat-action:

Plunge - Fever Ray

American Dream - LCD Soundsystem

Masseducation - St Vincent

RTJ3 - Run The Jewels

Humanz - Gorillaz

Everything Now - Arcade Fire

From Deewee - Soulwax

Dua Lipa - Dua Lipa

The OOZ - King Krule

Damn - Kendrick Lamar

Honourable mention - Ritual - In This Moment

10 Favourite Songs of 2017

Sigrid really stood our for me in the singles stakes, yet their were several pop gems to be found, not sure how many of those will end up as long-term bonafide classics:

Strangers - Sigrid

Like it Ain’t Nuttin’ - Fergie

Chained to the Rhythm - Katy Perry

Waterfall - Stargate ft Pink and Sia

Cola - Camelphat & Elderbrook (Franky Rizardo Rmx)

Ciao Adios - Anne-Marie

Green Light - Lorde

Shape of You - Ed Sheeran

New Rules - Dua Lipa

Lust for Life - Lana Del Ray ft The Weeknd

5 Musical Trends for 2018

2017 was the year that Grime finally broke through to the mainstream and also gained a tiny foothold in the USA to some degree. Latin Pop was everywhere last year - following worldwide hit Despacito, ’Mi Gente’ also had considerable success. That perennial 80’s vibe seems to be back and stronger than ever with several classic 80’s bands releasing new material - e.g. The Cure, and 80’s Soul & R&B flavours being back in vogue. Following on from Jlin’s Black Origami, I also see more ’glitch’ sounds being prevalent in 2018 - particularly in the area of drum-programming for hip-hop, where artists are always in search of new-style beats.

Latin Pop - Despacito was the big hit of 2017 alongside Ed Sheeran’s ’Shape of Me’ - expect to see more songs based on similar sonic templates in 2018

80’s Style Soul + R&B - A few of the new artists for 2018 have latched onto more organic 80’s Soul + R&B flavours for their songs - expect 80’s influences to pepper much of 2018’s output

More Grime - Grime has finally reached mainstream acceptance - expect more artists to find success with this format in 2018

More 80’s Revivalism - The Cure, My Bloody Valentine, Johnny Marr etc. - plenty of new output from some of our 80’s favourites

Glitch - Not just electronic music - IDM etc. but also to be found in the rhythm tracks and beats of new hip-hop and grime - fresh beats are a must, and musicians will be experimenting with an ever wider variety of new-found sounds in 2018 - glithcy, clashing and otherworldly

15 New Artists for 2018

In times past I’ve put in a real concerted effort to dig up and uncover fresh new talent, but I’m happy for BBC, MTV and the like to do the heavy lifing for me these days. None of these are total guarantees of success, although I do have high hopes for at least the top 3 here, and wish all of these the best of luck with the various new artist awards - every little helps ...

Sigrid

Billie Eilish

Maggie Rogers

IAMDBB

Denzel Himself

Dream Wife

Stereo Honey

Jorja Smith

Rachel Foxx

Mahalia

Pale Waves

Yonaka

Mina Rose

Jade Bird

Ms Banks

Preferred / Select Album Releases 2017

As usual - just my preferences really and not a yardstick for all releases - just things that interest me:

Legal

Cookie Settings

Custom ID

Privacy Preferences

Your Privacy

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Performance Cookies

More Information

What are Cookies?

Cookies are tiny text files that are placed on your computer, mobile phone, or other device, and help provide you with the best experience we can. They are used by most websites to help personalise your web experience. Some features will not function if you do not allow cookies.

Our cookies help us:

Make our website work as you’d expectSave you having to login every time you visit the siteRemember your settings during and between visitsImprove the speed/security of the siteAllow you to share pages with social networks like TwitterContinuously improve our website for youGranting us permission to use cookies

If the settings on your software that you are using to view this website (your browser) are adjusted to accept cookies we take this, and your continued use of our website, to mean that you are fine with this. Should you wish to remove or not use cookies from our site you can remove them, however doing so will likely mean that our site will not work as you would expect.

It is only once you sign up and provide consent that the system will look to personalise the experience for you with best matching content and other recommendations.

Which cookies do we use and why?

Across the site we use the minimum number of cookies, with no third party analytics tracking, e.g. Google Analytics. There are however some key social, audio and video embeds which are used on the site and these in turn use cookies, we recommend that you use privacy and ad blocking plugins to minimise the number of third party cookies, none of which are required for affino.com.

1. Strictly necessary

Strictly necessary cookies are essential in helping you to move around our websites and use their features, such as accessing secure areas of the website and shopping. These cookies don’t gather any information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you’ve been on the internet.

We use these Strictly Necessary cookies to:

Remember things like information you’ve entered on order forms when you navigate to different pages in a single web browser sessionRemember the goods and services you ordered when you get to the checkout pageIdentifying you as being signed in and keeping you logged in throughout your visit so that you don’t need to sign in each and every time you visit.Using our site indicates that you accept the use of ’Strictly Necessary’ cookies.

Accepting these cookies is a condition of using the website, so if you prevent them we cannot guarantee how our site will perform for you.

Here is a list of the cookies we have defined as ’Strictly Necessary’

Host: affino.comCookie names: JSESSIONIDPurpose: To keep track of user sessions on the site and identify your user session on the server level.

These cookies allow websites and applications to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. They do not gather any information about you that could be used for selling advertising or remembering where you’ve been on the internet, but do help with serving advertising.

Some examples of how we do this include:

Remembering your preferences and settings.Show you when you’re logged in to the websiteSupporting social media components, like Facebook or Twitter (where a website uses a plugin from these third party platforms, for example).Remembering if you’ve been to the site before so that messages intended for first-time users are not displayed to you.Remembering your search settingsMaking our shopping basket and checkout workRemembering if you have accepted our terms and conditionsUsing our site indicates that you accept the use of ’Functional’ cookies.

Accepting these cookies is a condition of using the website, so if you prevent them we cannot guarantee how our site will perform for you.

Here is a list of the cookies we have defined as ’Functional’:

None

3. Performance (analytical)

’Performance’ cookies collect information about how you use our website e.g. which pages you visit, and if you experience any errors. These cookies don’t collect any information that could identify you - all the information collected is anonymous and is only used to help us improve how our website works.

Some examples of how we do this include:

Provide statistics on how our website is usedSee how effective our adverts are (we don’t use this information to target adverts to you when you visit other websites)Provide feedback to partners that one of our visitors also visited their website. This can include details of any products bought. This lets our partners improve their website, but we don’t allow our partners to reuse this information for further advertisingHelp us improve the website by measuring any errors that occurUsing our site indicates that you accept the use of ’Performance’ cookies.

Accepting these cookies is a condition of using the website, so if you prevent them we cannot guarantee how our site will perform for you.

Here is a list of the cookies we have defined as ’Performance’:

None

4. Target or Advertising (3rd party)

’Targeting’ cookies are linked to services provided by third parties, such as ’Like’ buttons and ’Share’ buttons. The third party provides these services in return for recognising that you have visited our website.

An example of this includes:

Link to social networks like Facebook, who may subsequently use information about your visit to target advertising to you on other websitesWe use third party services provided by third parties like YouTube or Vimeo who may subsequently use information about your visit to target advertising to you on other websitesYou can control whether or not these cookies are used, but preventing them may stop us from offering you some services. All of these cookies are managed by third parties, and you may alternatively use the third parties’ own tools to prevent these cookies.

Here is a list of the cookies we have defined as ’Targeting’.

None

Third Party Cookies

Some third party content may be embedded in pages on Affino.com and these may have the ability to track and personalise your experience for the embedded content. Examples of third party cookies are:

Host: soundcloud.comCookie name: __utma, __utmb, __utmc, __utmzPurpose: Soundcloud can be used to share music and audio files. They use google analytics to capture visitor information

Host: youtube.comCookie name: PREF, use_hitbox, PRVISITOR_INFO1_LIVEEFPurpose: When you view a web page on your site with an embedded YouTube video, YouTube creates these cookies

Host: twitter.comCookie name: personalization_idPurpose: When you view a web page on your site with an embedded Twitter card, Twitter creates this cookie.

How you can control cookies

1. Browser controls

Most modern browsers offer you ways to control or block cookies. These browser controls will usually be found in the “options’ or “preferences” menu. For more help, you may take a look at the “Help” settings or review these website for more details - http://www.aboutcookies.org/Default.aspx?page=1

2. Ad cookies and targeting

You can find more information or turn off targeting by member companies at YourOnlineChoices UK http://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk.

About this policy

If our use of cookies changes, we will post the changes to this policy. Please check frequently as online data collection practices and our use of them continue to evolve. To contact us about this policy, you may email support@affino.com

This version of the privacy policy is effective as of Aug 1 2018

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly necessary cookies are essential in helping you to move around our websites and use their features, such as accessing secure areas of the website and shopping. These cookies don't gather any information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you've been on the internet.

We use these Strictly Necessary cookies to:

Remember things like information you've entered on order forms when you navigate to different pages in a single web browser session

Remember the goods and services you ordered when you get to the checkout page

Identifying you as being signed in and keeping you logged in throughout your visit so that you don't need to sign in each and every time you visit.

Using our site indicates that you accept the use of 'Strictly Necessary' cookies.

Accepting these cookies is a condition of using the website, so if you prevent them we cannot guarantee how our site will perform for you.

'Performance' cookies collect information about how you use our website e.g. which pages you visit, and if you experience any errors. These cookies don't collect any information that could identify you - all the information collected is anonymous and is only used to help us improve how our website works.

Some examples of how we do this include:

Provide statistics on how our website is used

See how effective our adverts are (we don't use this information to target adverts to you when you visit other websites)

Provide feedback to partners that one of our visitors also visited their website. This can include details of any products bought. This lets our partners improve their website, but we don't allow our partners to reuse this information for further advertising